How to Build a Construction Marketing Plan

You know what it takes to build but now it’s the time to build something else — a construction marketing plan to help your business grow.

Improve Sales: Construction Marketing Plan

One of the most important to-dos in setting up your construction business for success is creating a great marketing plan. At the end of the day you want your efforts to build a full sales pipeline.

Like in any industry, a marketing strategy gets what you offer in front of the right people – your target market. Do it right and your efforts will help your customers understand why your services are better and different from the competition.

 

Creating a construction marketing plan is more than just advertising. Yes, advertising is a part of the puzzle but it’s really just a piece. All parts of your marketing plan need to work into a larger strategy. Each of these pieces depends on the other for success. Remember, true success is building that full

sales pipeline!


For those unfamiliar with any marketing, building a marketing plan seems daunting. However, it really isn’t. It just takes some thought, coordination and a will to get tasks done. Mostly, it’s about thinking about the wants and needs of your perfect customer.

Building a construction marketing plan

Whether you’re starting from scratch, working with a marketing agency or want to rethink your efforts so far, consider our best tips to get your construction company’s marketing plan in the best shape possible. How would you answer the following questions?

Have you determined your goals and objectives?

Every construction company has goals they want to meet. Sit down and think about what you want to accomplish. Some ideas for you could be increasing revenue or expanding sectors. What’s key here is that your goals are measurable and SMART. Aim for realistic numbers and timelines for your goals. Stand back and review them. If you believe you can quantitatively discuss and compare your results at the end of the year then you’ve got SMART goals.

Do you understand your target market and target persona?

Next, figure out those target personas.

 

What is a persona exactly? Understanding your target market goes hand in hand with defining your most likely buyers. Target personas will be different for the sectors you work in.

 

Here’s a bit of background. Marketers need to figure out who their buyer personas are. They are generalized, fictional characters that are a pretty accurate representation of ideal customers who need or want your product or service. In the construction industry, you’ll want to create these personas considering company titles, goals, concerns, questions, and challenges. Maybe you want to sell to architects. Perhaps you want to market to commercial builders. Understanding your target persona will make your efforts that much easier.

Once you figure out those important personas, you can delve into understanding your target market and capturing those leads. For example, if you are an electrical subcontractor, your target persona would be general contractors that belong to the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA). Maybe you work with facility managers. Then you’d search for contacts affiliated with associations such as the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA). Or perhaps your client base is in the transportation and logistics field. Then, you’d target the Logistics and Transportation Association of North America. The list goes on!

Did you conduct market research?

Any marketing specialist will tell you that research is the backbone of any marketing plan. Start out by doing a SWOT analysis of your construction business: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Take a deep dive or a strategic analysis into things that may impact your business – from both an internal and external perspective. By knowing the market your business runs in, you can better plan any marketing strategy.

 

SWOT is basically a look into internal and external factors that can play a role in decisions you make about your construction business. Strengths and weaknesses are an internal look because you need to figure out what your company does well and what needs to get better. It comes down to focusing on the current situation. Looking at threats and opportunities is about the external environment and focuses on what can happen in the future.

 

For example, your business might want to delve into the industrial sector which might need more funds and a sector that may mean slower returns. Growth for you may mean you should focus on faster growth opportunities and in the end that is where your marketing strategy should primarily focus.

Did you determine your marketing budget?

What’s too little or too much to spend on your marketing plan? The truth of the matter is that marketing budgets will always vary. That’s because a construction company’s target audience is dependent on unique needs and goals. Your marketing strategy, just like any construction project, must be monitored, adjusted and adapted to ever-changing business environments.

 

Jot down the numbers that revolve around people and resources to get the job done. Consider if you need:

  • Staff to work on marketing projects.
  • Outsourcing marketing projects to agencies or freelancers.
  • Who will handle your content marketing needs?
  • Will there be enough staff to handle additional workload once your marketing plan succeeds?

A budget that is aligned to your dream outcomes is critical. This requires efficiency, so you can maximize your ROI. Yet, you also much invest the maximum amount, so you can really drive growth. Keep that balance!

 

Also, be sure to research your specific sector to figure our industry benchmarks. Another tip is that you can review what worked and what did not work from the year before.

Have you developed a good mix of construction marketing collateral?

It’s always good to have a mix of marketing collateral to figure out what works for you. Some of these efforts could include improving your company website, writing blogs that are useful to your target personas or figuring out social media strategies. Perhaps you want to think about getting content in trade magazines, newsletters or advertise in print, broadcast or digital media. By exploring an array of marketing channels, you can take your message to potential new clients.

Do you have a way to analyze the marketing plan efforts you’ve been making?

Just as important as research and execution is the ability to monitor and analyze your construction marketing plan efforts.

 

You have already determined your goals. As time passes you’ll want to note if you are on track to reaching those goals. Be sure to keep track of your numbers each month so you can see what you need to do to better meet them. Be sure to focus on metrics that are most relevant to you. Don’t get lost in numbers that really don’t matter to your success. To figure out next steps, have a meeting with estimators, managers and other staff to talk about what has worked and what isn’t working. By being curious, you can understand which projects are worth pursuing.

The importance of a marketing plan for your construction firm

In the construction world, project management is the backbone to a construction projects success. Being familiar with that makes it easier to understand that planning, executing and analyzing a marketing plan is the key to successfully building a full sales pipeline. The goal is to align your marketing and sales efforts to grab big wins and take on every opportunity. That’s where customer relationship management (CRM) software comes into play.

 

Having a construction marketing plan in play doesn’t mean you’ll see success overnight. What it will do is pave the road to better reaching your sales goals. You’ll need to experiment and fine tune what you spend your marketing dollars on along the way. You’ll have to learn what works for your specific business. By learning from your mistakes, you can be smarter about how you brand and market your business. In the end, you’ll better understand your target personas and 

serve them better.

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